The K-class coastal defense submarines were authorized in Fiscal Year 1911. Predictably, they were slightly larger versions of the preceding H-class, about three feet longer, one foot wider, and about 40 tons heavier on the surface. The armament stayed the same at four 18" bow torpedo tubes. These EB design boats were built at three different yards: K-1, K-2, K-5, and K-6 at Fore River Shipbuilding in Quincy, MA., K-3, K-7, and K-8 at Union Iron Works in San Francisco, and K-4 at Moran Shipbuilding in Seattle. Although considered successful boats, the vastly changed naval environment and the emphasis on fleet submarines after WWI made these boats quickly obsolete. They were all decommissioned and discarded in the early 1920's, after only about nine years of service.
K-1 (Submarine No. 32, later SS-32)
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.
K-1 shortly after her arrival at Horta, Faial, in the Azores in late October 1917. The submarine had yet to have the chariot bridge installed. The pipe and canvas bridge structures used in the peacetime waters off the U.S. proved to be utterly impracticable in a wartime setting, so following the European lead the permanent steel chariot bridge structures were later added. We would like to pass on our thanks to Mike Amaral for providing us with a correction to the location of the photo.
K-2 leaving port at her base in Ponta Delgada, Azores, early 1918.Her bow diving planes are rigged out, somewhat unusual if she was to make an extended surface run. She may be headed out for a local dive to test repairs.
K-3 is shown here on her builder's trials, September 1914, possibly in or near San Francisco Bay. Note the two civilians on her forward deck. These would be yard workers from the Union Iron Works yard that built her.
Note the vertical number "24" on the side of the periscope shears. This is not her hull number. It was an identifier used to determine the boat's place in a steaming formation at sea, i.e. she was the fourth boat of division 2.
Her periscopes are fixed in height and do not retract. The eyepiece down in the control room does not move either. It is fixed in place and the operator cranks a handwheel to rotate the head on top with the lens.
All 8 K-class submarines moored together, probably November or December, 1918, in a large nest. There is a host of ships in the background, including a destroyer on the right, and a battleship in the middle. With this many ships the location is most likely the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The K-5 is being painted so its numbers aren't shown. Prior to WW I U.S. subs used a temporary pipe and canvas bridge structure that was taken down each time the boat dived. Once the boats reached the WW I operating areas this was proved to be very impracticable and was replaced by a permanent sheet-metal "chariot bridge" favored by the European submarines in the rough North Atlantic waters. Note that none of the K-class was equipped with a deck gun. They were too small for such an installation, even for the diminutive 3"/23 caliber guns used on the L-class.
